It was a big Meath night out in Dublin 4. Even as John Bruton was making his opening speech at the RDS, some of his neighbours from the Ward Union Hunt were arriving for their annual ball, up the road in Jurys.
The huntspeople had to run the gauntlet of a protest by campaigners protesting against ill-treatment of stags. But amazingly there was no such protest at the RDS, where the Master of the Fine Gael hounds sounded the horn on a weekend of "sport" during which members of the Government are expected to be treated something cruel.
Indeed, if the rank-and-file members of Fine Gael really had been hounds, they'd have been barking their heads off last night. The pack has caught the smell of fear in Government quarters in recent weeks; and when Master Bruton mounted his high horse for the opening address, an election other than the scheduled European and local ones was in the air.
But perhaps conscious of the presence on the platform of the party's international allies from the Christian Democrat movement, the Fine Gael leader toned it down. His prepared speech boasted of the "petrified and terrified" Government, but he didn't deliver the line last night. Nor did he make a planned reference to the "legacy of the Haughey era".
Maybe these themes were too domestic to be delivered by the Christian Democrats' "European of the Year", or maybe Mr Bruton feared his allies might not have the stomach for Irish political bloodsports.
Instead, he concentrated on the party's image-change; and the new lone-star logo hung above him on the stage as he introduced his overseas guests - Javier Ruperez, Rupert Polenz and Bernhard Lamers - as if they were the three wise men.
Another scripted but undelivered remark was that speculation about the party's change of direction was correct. "But we're not going left or right - we're going up," is what Mr Bruton didn't get around to saying. In fact, the party's new logo has gone down - to a trendy lower-case lettering - though perhaps the party leader dropped the "going up" remark lest he invite comparisons to Richard Branson.
Delegates to the ardfheis had heroes' welcomes for by-election winner, Simon Coveney; for Dublin Lord Mayor Joe Doyle; and for Theresa Ahern, back on active service after a serious illness.
Meanwhile, somewhere outside in the darkness, another Ahern - the hunted Bertie - sheltered for the night. Wounded by recent events, but enjoying a reprieve from the baying bloodhounds. At least until tomorrow.
